It seems lighter and more shiny than the frame,
but perhaps this is a property of the coating
and/or the steel itself rather than indicative
of another material altogether?

Is the handlebar the most safety-critical part
of the bike?

I have seen several brake but this never
happened to me nor did I ever sense any
inclination it would. Is this because of other
people's more aggressive riding style or do
they have thinner handlebar pipes, or pipes in
softer material?

On Tuesday, 09 January at 01:01, Emanuel Berg wrote:
On steel frame bikes, what material are
handlebars typically made of?

they are typically made of aluminium. One bar, a straight one broke on
me. I did hear prior to it breaking, creaking noises. Luckily I was
slowing to a stop when it happened so I wasn't injured.
It seems lighter and more shiny than the frame,
but perhaps this is a property of the coating
and/or the steel itself rather than indicative
of another material altogether?

Is the handlebar the most safety-critical part
of the bike?

I have seen several brake but this never
happened to me nor did I ever sense any
inclination it would. Is this because of other
people's more aggressive riding style or do
they have thinner handlebar pipes, or pipes in
softer material?

On Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 12:01:36 AM UTC, Emanuel Berg wrote:
On steel frame bikes, what material are
handlebars typically made of?

It seems lighter and more shiny than the frame,
but perhaps this is a property of the coating
and/or the steel itself rather than indicative
of another material altogether?

Is the handlebar the most safety-critical part
of the bike?

I have seen several brake but this never
happened to me nor did I ever sense any
inclination it would. Is this because of other
people's more aggressive riding style or do
they have thinner handlebar pipes, or pipes in
softer material?

Andre Jute wrote:
Steel. I typically ride with North Road bars
and have never even heard of such bars being
made of aluminium. It seems likely to me that
what Wim had was a specialty item.

Is there a blacksmith trick to determine this
on an actual handlebar?

Here is a web page [1] that attempts to answer
this question, and from skimming it I imagine
this is the best answer:

Take one piece of aluminium and one piece
of stainless steel and hold it in ur hand -
they must be the same size, you can feel
the weight different: aluminium is much
lighter, while stainless is much heavier.
Or a simple test, take a needle file, just
file on the aluminium and you see that
aluminium material can be removed easily by
filing away with a needle file while
stainless is much harder and you can't file
and remove any material on that piece of
stainless steel, in short stainless is the
heavier and harder material and aluminium
is the lighter and easily
deformed material.

Just tap the bar with your fingernail. Ali sounds duller than steel. Ali also looks duller than steel. Ali will also display a thicker wall than steel. Finally, it is very likely that an Ali handlebar will have a larger diameter than a steel 'bar.

On Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 2:38:52 AM UTC+1, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
Steel. I typically ride with North Road bars
and have never even heard of such bars being
made of aluminium. It seems likely to me that
what Wim had was a specialty item.

Is there a blacksmith trick to determine this
on an actual handlebar?

Here is a web page [1] that attempts to answer
this question, and from skimming it I imagine
this is the best answer:

Take one piece of aluminium and one piece
of stainless steel and hold it in ur hand -
they must be the same size, you can feel
the weight different: aluminium is much
lighter, while stainless is much heavier.
Or a simple test, take a needle file, just
file on the aluminium and you see that
aluminium material can be removed easily by
filing away with a needle file while
stainless is much harder and you can't file
and remove any material on that piece of
stainless steel, in short stainless is the
heavier and harder material and aluminium
is the lighter and easily
deformed material.

On Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 4:46:01 PM UTC, Frank Krygowski wrote:
But unlike aluminum ones, stainless steel bars are
very rare, if not nonexistent.

Here you go, Franki-boy. First link that comes up on Google throws out a whole lot of stainless steel handlebars offered on Ebay, and since I had Scharfie's favorite page open, here's a bunch of stainless handlebars you can buy in bulk to set yourself up as a bling dealer --https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/sta...andlebars.html
-- or buy just one on Aliexpress to educate yourself.

I chuckled at your "non-existent" stainless steel bars. It's so dumb, nobody will believe it. I have two stainless steel handlebars on bikes in the loft, and probably more in boxes of components. One I chose from the Humpert catalogue to be fitted to my Utopia Kranich as a temporary measure just to see how I liked something different from my normal North Road Bars. In Europe Humpert bars are the mainstream for upscale bikes, and they're nutters for testing components. If they list stainless bars, you may be absolutely certain there is nothing wrong with stainless bars.

You should check your facts, Franki-boy.

Andre Jute
Always happy to help

PS The Humpert catalogue also comes in English if you don't speak German.

If the handlebars are steel like the rest of
the frame the have had another
polish/fininsh/coating as is it is much
more shiny.

I have never experienced rust being a problem
WRT handlebars except for perhaps the expander
wedge/center bolt.

If there is rust on the handlebar itself this
is of a very thin, almost fluid nature, and it
can be removed just swiping it off with some
spray solvent, no filing needed which will only
leave tracks in the material and probably lead
to more rust if anything.

Here you go, Franki-boy. First link that comes up on Google throws out a whole lot of stainless steel handlebars offered on Ebay, and since I had Scharfie's favorite page open, here's a bunch of stainless handlebars you can buy in bulk to set yourself up as a bling dealer --https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/sta...andlebars.html
-- or buy just one on Aliexpress to educate yourself.

I chuckled at your "non-existent" stainless steel bars. It's so dumb, nobody will believe it. I have two stainless steel handlebars on bikes in the loft, and probably more in boxes of components.

You claim to have stainless steel. That's probably appropriate for a
person of your girth.

I have aluminum. They are not exotic.

As you demonstrated, Alibaba sells stainless steel bars, minimum order
1000 - in other words, "Place your order and we'll tool up and make you
some."

Alibaba sells aluminum ones too, minimum order one - in other words
"Yes, they're so common we always keep them in stock."